Chinese activists stage hunger strike at Apple HQ
A hunger strike in progress at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino is protesting labor exploitation, recent AirDrop limitations, App Store censorship, and more.
Volunteers check on strikers. Credit: Vivian She via the SF Examiner
Since early December, Chinese international students and activists have held solidarity vigils at Stanford, Berkeley, and San Jose. Two hunger strikers have also situated themselves at Apple Park, the company's corporate headquarters.
Han Wang, a Chinese student who attends the University of Southern California, began his hunger strike on Monday. He has only accepted water and will maintain the strike for as long as his health allows, according to the San Francisco Examiner.
Wang is calling on Apple to stop labor exploitation at its Foxconn iPhone plant, remove AirDrop time limitations to iPhones, stop censorship on the Chinese App Store, and publicly take a stance on China's persecution of Uyghurs.
VK, the other hunger striker, told Axios that their demonstration was inspired by the "white paper revolution," a series of protests in China where people hold up blank pieces of paper to protest censorship, COVID lockdowns, and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
"Privacy and freedom of speech is the foundation of a democratic society," he said. "The world including American consumers are not happy that Apple has bowed down to the [Chinese Communist Party]."
They protested food and conditions that were part of China's strict COVID-19 lockdowns. Following the riots, Foxconn apologized and said pay problems were a "technical error."
@moreless on Twitter" height="900" />
The protesters want Apple to stop censorship. Source: @moreless on Twitter
Foxconn also said that it communicated with the affected employees and was doing what it could "to actively solve the concerns and reasonable demands of employees."
The activists at Apple Park are also protesting Apple's recent changes to AirDrop. Initially released in China and rolling out to iPhone users worldwide in the upcoming iOS 15.2 release, it sets a time limit for the "Everyone" setting.
The "Everyone" setting, the focus of the 10-minute limit, means that anyone with an Apple device can receive something through AirDrop. Before the change, the "everyone" setting was permanent until toggled by the user.
Critics claimed it was done to impede protesters who may share anti-government materials through AirDrop. Although Apple made the change before protests in China started, it didn't announce it or publicly comment until it said it was rolling out the change to all users.
Read on AppleInsider
Volunteers check on strikers. Credit: Vivian She via the SF Examiner
Since early December, Chinese international students and activists have held solidarity vigils at Stanford, Berkeley, and San Jose. Two hunger strikers have also situated themselves at Apple Park, the company's corporate headquarters.
Han Wang, a Chinese student who attends the University of Southern California, began his hunger strike on Monday. He has only accepted water and will maintain the strike for as long as his health allows, according to the San Francisco Examiner.
Wang is calling on Apple to stop labor exploitation at its Foxconn iPhone plant, remove AirDrop time limitations to iPhones, stop censorship on the Chinese App Store, and publicly take a stance on China's persecution of Uyghurs.
@FreeforHKpeople on Twitter" height="817" />VK, the other hunger striker, told Axios that their demonstration was inspired by the "white paper revolution," a series of protests in China where people hold up blank pieces of paper to protest censorship, COVID lockdowns, and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
"Privacy and freedom of speech is the foundation of a democratic society," he said. "The world including American consumers are not happy that Apple has bowed down to the [Chinese Communist Party]."
Protest goals
Alleged labor exploitation at Foxconn is among the topics of protest. In November, hundreds of workers rioted at the Apple supplier's iPhone factory in Zhengzhou.They protested food and conditions that were part of China's strict COVID-19 lockdowns. Following the riots, Foxconn apologized and said pay problems were a "technical error."
@moreless on Twitter" height="900" />The protesters want Apple to stop censorship. Source: @moreless on Twitter
Foxconn also said that it communicated with the affected employees and was doing what it could "to actively solve the concerns and reasonable demands of employees."
The activists at Apple Park are also protesting Apple's recent changes to AirDrop. Initially released in China and rolling out to iPhone users worldwide in the upcoming iOS 15.2 release, it sets a time limit for the "Everyone" setting.
The "Everyone" setting, the focus of the 10-minute limit, means that anyone with an Apple device can receive something through AirDrop. Before the change, the "everyone" setting was permanent until toggled by the user.
Critics claimed it was done to impede protesters who may share anti-government materials through AirDrop. Although Apple made the change before protests in China started, it didn't announce it or publicly comment until it said it was rolling out the change to all users.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
AI will give press to any progressive, socialist cause
Many other American businesses maybe jumping ship just to survive, it’s looking like being vertical (making it at home) and selling direct to your customers online may come back into fashion.
Something genius like Shein means maybe staying at home like Lodge Cast Iron or most of Japanese, Korean, or German companies wasn’t so bad.
Based on Shein’s business model, Apple there will be a need for easy to maintain energy efficient servers at the local in house level.
I think there's a belief that Apple caved to the CCP's demands regarding the AirDrop time limit, but honestly, I think it was a course correction that just happened to start in China. Having a time limit on the "Everyone" option is a good idea! Maybe they can make that adjustable (you know... give some choice), but having it always-on was not the best design, particularly for those that are less technically adept.
It's always amusing when people say that stuff needs to be made in the US, as if somehow the US is better than the rest of the world when it comes to wages. Walmart and Amazon are two massive success stories with low wages and massively destructive effects on communities. Every time a Walmart moves into town, a dozen or more small businesses close. And the number of sales diverted to Amazon away from locally-owned family businesses is astronomical. They both destroy healthy, vibrant communities. But hey, low prices and convenience are hard to ignore.
See also https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-knowingly-used-child-labor-supplier-3-years-cut-costs-2020-12
Sure Apple would be free to move the production of their products outside of China, if they built and operated their own assembly plants. But Apple is not comparable to a GM, Ford, Mercedes or Boeing. Where they design their products, round up all the parts and build them in their own plants, with employees that works for them. Even though FoxConn have several other assembly plants around the World, that can assemble Apple products, none of them come lose to matching the capacity of any of the 12 plants they have in China. Of which several of them are dedicated to just assembling iPhones. Right now, FoxConn is building factories in India and Vietnam. But these factories won't be able to assemble any significant amount of iPhones to export, let alone meet their own country's need, for quite a while. Apple for now, have no choice but to contract with FoxConn and have most of their products assembled in China.
Apple have already committed to buying chips from TSMC, that will be made in a plant to be built in AZ, USA. And Apple might commit to having Apple own designed chips made by TSMA, in the USA. That's not going to be a saving for Apple. But here, Apple will at least have the choice of ..... Made in USA
I bet you look the other way when you're saving a hundred dollar buying electronics goods that are cheaper because they were made in China. And you don't have a choice with many electronic goods. What choice do you have if you want an Xbox or PlayStation? Both are assembled in China. I like to see you buy an original Atari 2600 for your game console gaming needs...... because they were Made in the USA.
For Apple to achieve moving production out of China without negatively affecting production it takes a time and effort to devise, setup and implement the massive undertaking of logistics to make that happen, but they're clearly making moves in that direction.